Information processing systems for consumers have become a commodity. Desktop PC's, lap-tops, palm-tops and other personal digital assistants (PDA's) have been becoming household items. Similarly, mobile phones and pagers have become widespread. Some or all of these devices have one or more functionalities in common. For example, a person's PC has a database with email addresses and other contact information for communication purposes that are useful to have available in the programmable address book of a mobile phone or PDA and vice versa. As another example, consider a database of bookmarks in the browser of a first Internet-enabled device that are desirable to have available, in its entirety or in part, on a second Internet enabled device with browser capabilities. One way to accomplish is this to have the user manually program or otherwise manually enter the database, or a desired portion thereof, into the second device. This is a tedious task, especially when the alphanumeric keyboard functionality is minimized as it typically is on PDA'sand other handhelds.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,940,752, herein incorporated by reference, relates to a cellular telephone as a portable information storage and retrieval device for data stored in and transmitted to the telephone from a personal computer. The computer and associated input devices, such as a keyboard, a mouse and a screen, local and network databases and interfaces to personal organizer software all allow ease of input and maintenance of the information. A communications path between the personal computer and the telephone terminal is provided for periodically transferring the information from the personal computer to the telephone terminal. The cellular telephone is thus provided access to information such as a dialing directory, appointments, reminders, etc. that is easily inputted and conveniently stored in the cellular telephone.